The family of six wiped out over a damaged phone

IN a chilling incident that signposts a burgeoning inclination towards violent crime and the collapse of moral values in the Nigerian society, a family of six, including four children, has been reportedly wiped out by three outlaws in Oloba village, Lagelu Local Government Area of Oyo State. The suspects, namely Hameed Akinbami, Akinbami Ojo and Padonu Edwards, who have been apprehended by the police, reportedly robbed, killed and dumped the bodies of their victims in a river. The accounts of the three suspects differ from one another, with each pushing a narrative that suggests minimal participation in the ghoulish act. The common thread, however, is that the trio confessed to conspiring and participating in carrying out the dastardly act, one way or the other.

The remote cause of the killings was said to be a phone belonging to the ringleader, Hameed Akinbami, which was allegedly damaged by the head of the family that was attacked and obliterated. There had been an argument about the damaged phone a while ago and community elders had reportedly intervened and mediated on the matter at the time. But apparently, the outcome of the mediation was not to the satisfaction of Akinbami, who mobilised criminals to launch a ferocious attack on the family. It was actually a revenge mission which is both criminal and morally reprehensible. This is a grievous crime and should be treated as such. Uncivilised recourse to self-help by any citizen should not be condoned or tolerated under any circumstances. The fact that the dispute that led to the killings had been mediated months ago makes the barbaric action of Hameed and his co-savages more worrisome and painful, especially against the backdrop of the revelation that the alleged damage to the phone was paid for during mediation.

We had urged in the past, and we are doing so again, that parents, the authorities and society in general must pay attention to the near-total loss of morality and family values. In particular, the prevalence of the use of illicit substances by youths should be reined in by all means. It has been established by the police, time and again, that a lot of criminals act under the influence of narcotics that give them a diminished sense of reality. For instance, one of the suspects in this case reportedly called on the government to kill him and his gang. One begins to wonder what society is turning into. It is difficult to fathom why anyone in his right senses would recruit thugs to rob, attack and kill a whole family just because his phone was damaged, and even after the damage was paid for, he still went ahead to rob and kill. This level of disregard for the sanctity of human life over frivolity is really disturbing. It is sadly the case that the decision to kill and maim human beings is taken lightly and on a whim these days, as if the action that follows such ignoble decisions could be reversed at will. This is due to the erosion of moral values and it is a dangerous indication of the inexorable descent of society into the abyss. It is axiomatic that a moral reset and value reorientation have become imperative in order to pull it back from the labyrinth of decadence and stymie the rot.

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We commend the police for a good job. The prompt apprehension of the suspects upon credible intelligence would send a signal to criminals and would-be criminals that they would be caught if they breach the law of the land. This incident should be painstakingly investigated and the law should be allowed to take its course. Perhaps it is important to stress that Hameed, Ojo and Padonu are murderers and robbers and must be treated as such. They invaded the house of their victims with dangerous weapons and robbed the family of N200,000 cash, a Boxer motorcycle, a Doma machine with chainsaw and a spraying machine. And not content with larceny, the outlaws proceeded to kill their victims in a most gruesome fashion and threw their bodies into the river, ostensibly to cover their tracks. It was the height of cruelty that must be punished within the ambit of the law.

It may not be out of place to activate the firing squad to execute sanctions verging on the death penalty, especially in cases like this. Perhaps the sheer announcement of this mode of punishment will deter criminals and those who may want to commit crimes. Again, we urge governors to stop shying away from signing death warrants to serve as a deterrent. It has been observed that since the advent of civilian rule in 1999, governors have been shying away from executions. While it is true that the death penalty is becoming increasingly unpopular as a sanction globally, especially in advanced democracies, we strongly believe that the peculiarities and frequency of high crimes in individual sovereign jurisdictions should determine whether recourse should be made to capital punishment or not.

For instance, in a clime like Nigeria where bandits, terrorists and other criminals maim, kill and kidnap innocent citizens with reckless abandon on a daily basis, it may be counterproductive to continue to keep criminals who have totally lost their humanity in prisons. The risk exists of the official release or escape of such criminals from correctional centres. Besides, there have been cases of hardened criminals planning operations from within prison yards for their gang members to execute outside. Thus, keeping, feeding and catering to the needs of prison inmates on death row not only constitutes a waste of scarce resources, it is a veritable danger to society. Anyone who has been sentenced to death is naturally capable of all forms of precipitate action because he or she has nothing else to lose.

The bizarre and gruesome decimation of a family of six, ostensibly over a damaged phone, exemplifies an incredible level of cruelty which markedly diminishes society’s collective humanity. As we have often stressed, containing the scope, frequency and the continually burgeoning acts of criminality in the land will require official and other critical stakeholders’ interventions in terms of intentional and effective implementation of moral values reset and deterrence programmes.